JakArt@2008 General Conference
1 – 5 August 2008
Kathrin
Deventer
Secretary General European Festivals
Association (EFA)
Speech
Without Arts, there is no diversity and dialogue of cultures!
I am much honored to be invited to give a presentation to the JakArt Conference 2008. It is a great pleasure to be with all of you here in Jakarta.
The theme of this year’s conference cannot be more ambitious: “The future of culture and the relevance and importance of the arts and culture in shaping the 21st century” – there is much to say about this!
I will share with you just a few of my thoughts that are linked with my very personal situation: I am living and working in Europe, so I will refer particularly to the European environment and the relevance that is given to arts and culture in recent European policies. Secondly, I will introduce you to some of the working lines the European Festivals Association is proposing in this context: How does EFA as a network contribute to the strengthening of the voice of arts and culture in the political debate? How does EFA advocate the immense power of the arts in society?
We are here today among colleagues working in the arts, and knowing very well the significance and power of the arts and in particular arts festivals: praying to the converted, one may say. Nevertheless: our discussion and speeches of today and the other days of the conference shall feed into our common engagement and a closer collaboration across the continents. Also, they should be articulated and carried out loudly and as widely as possible to the politicians, to the technocrats, to representatives of the world economy, to people taking decisions locally, nationally and internationally also beyond the cultural sector…
1.
Without entering into an in-depth analysis, we do all agree that that the 20th and 21st century brought overwhelming changes and challenges. Communication goes fast; we travel easily from one side of the world to the other; we have access to a great variety of information; we enjoy more cross-cultural contacts; we consume and enjoy foreign products and ideas; we adopt new technology and practices; and participate in a "world culture". Through a process of globalization as a combination of economic, technological, socio-cultural and political forces we seem to move closer together. At the same time changes in the 21st century bring many new challenges and questions and the necessity of defining new answers: I think of the exploitation of countries, and workers; the global heating; wars and conflicts between cultures and civilizations; and in the field of culture the fear of a homogenization of cultures…
What role for Culture in this context?
Culture and the arts in this 21st century to my mind are more important than ever in particular for two reasons: they are connected with people and reflect the very diversity of peoples. At the same time they trigger reflection and dialogue as few other sectors do (sports maybe does this when framed in a broader context). It is for sure very ambitious to go with Ary Sutedja who said at the occasion of the conference ‘Festivals in a globalizing world’ EFA organized last April that “it is through the Arts and Culture that a new order will be born”. However modest our contribution might be, let us think about our role.
In the ambitious integration process Europe launched in 1957 after the devastating years and centuries of wars between nations and states, culture at the very beginning did not play a primary role. It was the economy, and the monetary union, that made the beginning of the unification process. It took another 40 years for culture as a European policy field to be integrated in the European agenda: Only since 1992, with the Maastricht treaty, culture is part of European policies.
Why then? Because ‘Eurocrats’ realized: there is no integration without people supporting and implementing it. Europeans were left behind economic integration for the sake of a common market. The political and social integration failed. To find back the ‘Soul of Europe’, the forgotten ‘Culture’ came back on the agenda. Packed with an enormous task culture is now featured ‘to achieve prosperity, solidarity and security, while ensuring a stronger presence on the international scene’, ‘a very dynamic trigger of economic activities and jobs’, a tool to ‘help promoting an inclusive society and contribute to preventing and reducing poverty and social exclusion.’
High expectations and a long way to go: only 0,1% of the EU budget goes to culture. Currently the programme supporting cultural cooperation amounts to roughly 7 cents per citizen per year - a truly derisory figure!
Yet the political climate in Europe is favourable. European Commission President Emanuel Barroso said at the beginning of his mandate in 2004: "In the hierarchy of values, the cultural ones range above the economic ones....“. European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pöttering calls for ’A Soul for Europe’ - and people tend to look for it in culture. The transversal quality of culture, the horizontal application of aspects such cultural diversity or intercultural dialogue tend to find their entry in other political fields such as regional policies, the economics, foreign policy etc.
The question of what Europe can do for culture is more and more replaced by what culture can do for Europe. A first-ever European agenda for Culture was issued in May 2007. It will be a first ‚European policy in the field of culture’ that enables culture and the cultural players to support cultural diversity, intercultural dialogue, creativity and a strong role in international relations. This historic step is a real chance for the future development of international cultural cooperation.
2.
The European Festivals Association, from its very inception in 1952 even before the European Union came into existence, contributed to the shape of this climate. Founded in 1952 by Denis de Rougemont in the post-war dynamics striving for everlasting peace in Europe and in the world it advocated the importance of arts in society from its very beginning. Denis de Rougemont was a philosopher, a writer and a visionary man who believed in a European reality through cultural collaboration. So he initiated EFA, a network of great arts festivals from Eastern and Western Europe which met and co-produced despite political boundaries across the iron curtain. Even in times when the war in former Yugoslavia prevented all kinds of dialogue, member festivals from Belgrade, Sarajevo, Ljubljana, Ohrid, Dubrovnik and Zagreb kept on working together! A remarkable fact!
As we all know, festivals as a cultural formula, for many reasons are unique! Without any doubt at all, art and culture are incredibly influential and uplifting experiences in society. Festivals in particular seem to succeed in generating a stimulating and collective joyous atmosphere among people and to generate extra attention - by means of the press, for sure locally, sometimes nationally as well internationally - and to give a festive framework to a certain artistic and cultural context.
Today, in these increasingly multicultural societies, festivals play a pioneering role to turn multi-cultural into inter-cultural societies. “We live at a time where the dialogue between cultures is much more relevant than the dialogue between nations”, as Enrique Gamez, Director of the Granada Festival, points out.
· Festivals give artists from all over the world the opportunity of increasing and developing their artistic experience, thus initiating a process of mutual exchange among different countries.
· Festivals, conceived as plural and open moments, enhance the concept of participation and promote a sense of belonging.
· Festivals are unique expressions of the local community, as they are firmly rooted in the local environment, but at the same time they stimulate innovation and respect the common cultural heritage.
· Festivals play a unique role in the context of education by promoting a culture of peace and shaping understanding and respect amongst groups of people.
We all know this: but one of the major tasks for us as a network is to demonstrate these values to political decision-makers and change their mind. EFA, to give you an example, issued an Arts Festivals’ Declaration on Intercultural Dialogue at the occasion of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008. This manifesto has been supported by the European Union and is promoted worldwide. It engages festivals around the world in underlining how important arts and culture are in this context. The Asian Association of Performing Arts Festivals signed the Declaration and you are all invited to engage and sign up!
As a cross-national network of arts festivals, EFA supports festivals in their important work through a series of tools. EFA embraces festivals up north in the Scandinavian countries down to Spain, Greece and Portugal in Southern Europe, from South-Eastern Europe and Turkey to festivals in central Europe reaching out to members in Lebanon, Israel, Mexico, Japan, Armenia, Russia and the United Arab Emirates. We bring festivals together, offer a platform for dialogue to initiate common projects. We provide meeting facilities and a constant information flow. Furthermore, EFA believes that the gathering, sharing and increasing of know-how and knowledge about festivals and their work in different countries and regions in the world are essential if the many emerging festivals are to be professional. EFA’s long-term aim is to develop a referential, international festival resource and expertise centre useful to festival operators, researchers, the media, public funding bodies and potential sponsors. In addition EFA believes that it is vital for the young festival operators to work internationally and be trained. Therefore, EFA has launched the European Atelier for Young Festival Managers, a week-long international training programme aimed primarily at professionalizing those involved in artistic programming. 33 young operators from 22 different countries and 10 world-renown senior festival directors took part in the first edition in 2006. The next edition is planned for late April 2009 in Varna/Bulgaria. Follow the EFA website for news!
To set milestones and to demonstrate the importance of the arts in society are very important tasks for EFA. EFA is not alone of course: there are other organisations that fight for the recognition and the importance of arts and culture in the 21st century. Festivals and other arts organizations tend to reinforce themselves in networks. And networks reinforce their mission through working together.
EFA beliefs in joining forces where necessary and possible! A recently taken initiative will come into practice in 2008: the European House for Culture. It is a House, a physical place in Brussels that brings together different arts organizations and cultural networks under one roof. These organisations share an office and develop common projects. All these networks believe that the arts and cultural sector has to become an authoritative voice. They believe that the sector needs to set up a structured consultation process – as other sectors in Europe already do. The better this voice is heard and the better the process is elaborated in terms of content and visibility, the better it may come into effect. The European House for Culture is one step in the direction of a stronger, more prominent positioning of arts and culture in the decision-making process. The mission of the House is to facilitate a representative position of the cultural sector in order to advocate the place of culture in Europe and the world, to strengthen the power of the cultural sector, to enhance its visibility and its position. You see: we are believers in cultural networking!
It is by all means very exceptional that I may use this meeting as a platform to talk about Europe, and the efforts of EFA. Until now, I have only talked about the European dimension, but I would like to extend it. Cultural networking is a daily reality in Asia as well. The relationships between networks from different parts of the world are growing stronger and stronger - this gathering is the very proof of this tendency. There are many possibilities to collaborate. EFA for instance is co-founder of AAPAF. This unique international platform of today and the exceptional festival in Jakarta demonstrate this so brilliantly. Therefore, allow me to seize this opportunity to invite you to reinforce the already existing contacts beyond the continents. Why would it not be possible to work more closely together with all our members – or why not turn a ‘European House’ into a “Global House for Culture”? Asia is growing in all fields. With admiration we are witnessing the fresh, dynamic, renewing energy and creativity in Asia, also in cultural matters, including cultural networks.
Let us brainstorm in the next few days together. International collaboration and cultural networking contribute to an intercultural global society, to a better understanding of each other, to increased tolerance and to peace. However modest the role we are playing might be: let’s take our responsibility.
I wish all the best to the festival and I am looking forward to our future contacts.
Kathrin Deventer, Secretary General European Festivals Association (EFA)
JakArt@2008 General Conference and Showcas, 1-5 August 2008
Kathrin@efa-aef.eu - www.efa-aef.eu
JakArt secretariat:
Jln. Lebak Bulus II / 20 A, Cilandak – Jakarta 12430, INDONESIA
Tel/ fax: + 62-21-75907687, Tel: +
62-21-70830742,
email:
proseni@indosat.net.id